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How then do we go to work?
Let us begin by distinguishing Matter, Form, the Mixture of both,
and the Attributes of the Mixture. The Attributes may be
subdivided into those which are mere predicates, and those
serving also as accidents. The accidents may be either inclusive
or included; they may, further, be classified as activities,
experiences, consequents.
Matter will be found common to all substances, not however as a
genus, since it has no differentiae- unless indeed differentiae
be ascribed to it on the ground of its taking such various forms
as fire and air.
It may be held that Matter is sufficiently constituted a genus by
the fact that the things in which it appears hold it in common,
or in that it presents itself as a whole of parts. In this sense
Matter will indeed be a genus, though not in the accepted sense
of the term. Matter, we may remark, is also a single element, if
the element as such is able to constitute a genus.
Further, if to a Form be added the qualification "bound up with,
involved in Matter," Matter separates that Form from other Forms:
it does not however embrace the whole of Substantial Form [as, to
be the genus of Form, it must].
We may, again, regard Form as the creator of Substance and make
the Reason-Principle of Substance dependent upon Form: yet we do
not come thereby to an understanding of the nature of Substance.
We may, also, restrict Substance to the Composite. Matter and
Form then cease to be substances. If they are Substance equally
with the Composite, it remains to enquire what there is common to
all three.
The "mere predicates" fall under the category of Relation: such
are cause and element. The accidents included in the composite
substances ire found to be either Quality or Quantity; those
which are inclusive are of the nature of Space and Time.
Activities and experiences comprise Motions; consequents Space
and Time, which are consequents respectively of the Composites
and of Motion.
The first three entities [Matter, Form, Composite] go, as we have
discovered, to make a single common genus, the Sensible
counterpart of Substance. Then follow in order Relation,
Quantity, Quality, Time-during-which, Place-in-which, Motion;
though, with Time and Space already included [under Relation],
Time-during-which and Place-in-which become superfluous.
Thus we have five genera, counting the first three entities as
one. If the first three are not massed into a unity, the series
will be Matter, Form, Composite, Relation, Quantity, Quality,
Motion. The last three may, again, be included in Relation, which
is capable of bearing this wider extension.
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